Middle Tennessee State is not as big of a name as Florida State, but that’s OK with Brea Edwards.

She wants to help the Blue Raiders become a household name.

Edwards, the NIC-10’s all-time leading scorer in girls basketball after two years at Boylan and one at Hononegah, signed with Florida State a year ago after leading the NJCAA Division I in scoring at Central Arizona, which she led to the junior college title game. But that fell through when Edwards’ transcript wound up being one credit hour short.

After coming back home and taking classes at Rock Valley College, the 5-foot-10 Edwards signed with Middle Tennessee State (29-5), which won its first regular-season and tournament Conference USA titles and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Oregon State.

“This has been such a crazy ride for me,” Edwards said. “Everything that happened with Florida State; I thought that was my school. Every other player would think, ‘This is Florida State. This is a huge program.’ But I wanted to make a difference. And I finally found that. I found the right program for me.

“I don’t want to go to a program where they go to the tournament every year and I’m just another player. I want to be where I was a big part of the reason we were so successful. I want to be that player who makes a difference. I definitely think I will be able to do that at Middle Tennessee.”

The Blue Raiders have reached the NCAA tournament six years in a row and were the No. 9 seed last year, but were drubbed 55-36 by No. 8 seed Oregon State.

“They made it to the first round of the tournament and lost,” Edwards said. “To me, they are missing something. Hopefully, I can come into the program and make a change. I’m hoping my scoring can have an effect and we can go farther this year.”

The Blue Raiders return a solid core, including C-USA Freshman of the Year Olivia Jones, who averaged 8.4 points and 7.4 rebounds. But they lose senior honorable mention All-American Ebony Rowe (21.6 points, 11.6 rebounds), who had a school record 26 double-doubles.

Edwards, who was also 10th in the nation in offensive rebounds at Central Arizona, will try to fill that double-double void.

“Minus the scoring, offensive rebounding is the biggest part of my game,” she said. “It helps my team so much, whether I get a putback or give our team another possession. And if I’m not going to do it, who else is going to do it? I don’t want to rely on other people to get boards. That’s a huge part of my game. It always has been and always will.”